


28/07/25: break up

by excelsi_or



Series: to a boy i love right now [51]
Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: F/M, Fluff and Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-13
Updated: 2020-07-13
Packaged: 2021-03-04 23:40:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,401
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25244782
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/excelsi_or/pseuds/excelsi_or
Summary: It's break up or marriage at this point, isn't it? But Jihoon isn't sure if he's ready for either.
Relationships: Lee Jihoon | Woozi/Original Female Character(s)
Series: to a boy i love right now [51]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1252010
Comments: 4
Kudos: 15





	28/07/25: break up

**break up**

_July 28, 2025_

“I should break up with her,” Jihoon says, tipping back in his seat.

“That is the stupidest thing you’ve said,” Hansol snorts. “Do you also not even realize who you’re talking to?”

“The only other option is marrying her. That’s where we are right now.” He stares at the reusable to-go mug that has his caffeine fix. The drink in the mug is done to perfection, exactly how he likes it. In that it’s a cola that she had poured in this cup she had bought him. “She pours me Coke in a reusable mug before she goes to work.”

Hansol shrugs. “And that’s a bad thing? She knows what you like.”

“She knows me so well.” Jihoon spins in the chair and stares at the screen, his notebook of lyrics open in front of him as well as his laptop that houses more lyrics. “And yesterday we talked about some old songs I’d written that I can’t finish.”

“She’s your muse.” Hansol twists in his seat. “Seungkwan’s been saying it for years.”

“Yeah, so much so that I can’t write a good song without her around,” Jihoon agrees. “ _Except_ for these ones.”

“Why are you trying to finish them then?” Jihoon looks over at him with a flat look and Hansol tips his head slightly. “Right. Well, why don’t you just tell hyung that you can’t finish them?”

“He’s already heard them.” He rubs his eyes. “He knows they’re partly done.”

“So? If you present him with other stuff, then he can work with that.”

Jihoon sighs and turns back to the computer screen that has been taunting him since he got to work. “I love her, but sad songs are my _thing_. If I can’t write a sad song when I’m with her, then what?”

“When did you decide that?”

“What?”

Hansol snorts as he slouches further into his seat. “That sad songs are your thing? They don’t have to be your thing.”

“But they were.”

“Have you heard your newest songs? They’re not sad.”

Jihoon sighs again.

Hansol, realizing full well that this conversation has reached a moot point, decides maybe he can try being helpful. “If you guys were going to break up, _hypothetically_ , what would you expect her to say? And what would you say back?”

Jihoon hums. He turns to Hansol, his eyes on the reusable cup. “I’d expect her to let me down easy.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

Hansol rolls his eyes. He’s read through the lyrics already on the screen. He can tell they were post-break up emotions. “What about if she wasn’t nice about?”

Jihoon leans back in his seat, tilts his head back so that he’s staring at the ceiling. “She’d tell me that I’m shit at communicating, that my long hours and lack of communication make it hard on her. She’d tell me that it wasn’t worth waiting around for me anymore.” Jihoon blinks back a few tears that he hadn’t realized had cropped up.

“And you’d respond with?”

“That this is what I love to do.”

“And she’d ask if you love music more than her,” Hansol assumes. “To which you’d say…?”

“That she’s wrong. That I did, but now I don’t.”

Jihoon returns home later that evening with his backpack over his shoulder. He’d struggled through three songs and decided to just give up and go home. When he hears the sound of her humming in the kitchen, a smile blooms on his face. Having been thinking about her all day, he goes straight for her. She looks up at him with a confused smile, probably at his already present smile.

She laughs, baffled at his intense affection, when he tackles her in a bear hug. “What’s going on?”

Jihoon leans forward, nearly toppling her sideways, to kiss the side of her neck. He nuzzles his face there. “Just…”

She doesn’t move, waiting for him to finish his sentence.

“You know those songs I couldn’t finish?” He straightens up, arms still around her waist.

She continues to make herself a sandwich. “I do.”

“I need you to help me with something.”

“Sure.”

“What would you say to me if we were going to break up?”

“Huh?”

Jihoon waits for her to turn her head. The way she stares up at him makes him slightly uncomfortable, a small downturn of her brows and pout on her face at his question. He stops himself from rubbing his thumb back and forth against the skin underneath her shirt, right above her sweatpants. He has no recollection of lifting her shirt at all or putting his hands there. He hadn’t noticed he was even touching her skin.

“If we were going to break up,” he repeats, “what would you say?”

“To you?”

“How does this help you?” She puts down the knife she was using to spread butter on her toast. She rests a hip against the counter, sliding just out of his grasp.

“Boss wants those songs done. The songs were break up songs. I’m stuck for feeling and lyrics. I just need an idea.”

“So you want me to… pretend break up with you?”

Jihoon tips his head both ways. “Yes.”

“Hmm, okay.” She turns back to her sandwich.

“Well?”

“Let me think about it first,” she snorts.

Jihoon nods and pecks her shoulder. Then he heads to the bedroom. He takes a quick shower.

With a towel in hand drying his hair, and the other holding his phone, he reads through his text messages. When he steps out into the living room, he notices the lonely atmosphere.

“Jagi?”

**Jagi x (17:47)**

Took my stuff. Had to leave.

I love you Ji, but it’s hard to be in a relationship on my own.

Maybe we need to grow as people before we get back together.

Or maybe we don’t.

I just think that maybe we’re different people now.

Be happy, Jihoonie.

She doesn’t answer when he calls. Jihoon stares at his phone confused.

“Jagi, if this is a game, it’s not funny anymore.” Jihoon looks around, waiting for her to pop up giggling. Jihoon takes a seat on the couch and stares at his phone. He runs through the conversation before he’d showered. They’d discussed a ‘pretend break up’. Right…?

Jihoon stares at her message thread. He waits for the bubbles to appear of her messaging him again.

When the lack of communication becomes unbearable, he calls a second time.

“Did it work?” He can hear her chewing.

“Work?”

“Yeah, you got the feeling, right? Can you open the door please? I forgot my key on the table.”

Jihoon gets up with the phone still to his ear and opens the front door. She’s standing there eating her sandwich in one hand and smiles at him. When she gauges his expression, her smile falls.

“Jihoon.”

He hangs up the phone.

“You’re the one who told me to do it!” She reaches for him and hugs him, her cheek against his chest. “You didn’t think I’d actually leave, did you? You said to say what I would say to you if we broke up.”

“To my face!” he protests, hugging her tighter. He swings the door closed behind her.

“You didn’t specify! Also, I would _not_ break up with you face-to-face.” She pulls away and stares at him. The sandwich comes between them as she takes a bite. “If we were going to break up again, it would be because you forgot me in your music.”

“No, no, no.” Jihoon shakes his head. He’s acutely aware of his hands against her skin again. “I love you more than my music.”

This stuns her enough for her to stop chewing. Her eyes widen slightly. Jihoon can’t help but smile a bit.

“I think that’s the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me, my love,” she chuckles.

Jihoon kisses her forehead. “Shut up.”

“Seriously.” She looks up at him and then offers a bite of the sandwich. “I didn’t know.”

“I don’t show or tell you enough then.”

“What?”

“That I love you, dumbass.”

She smirks. “I just wanted to hear you say it again.” She watches him chew for a moment. “Are you able to finish those songs?”

Jihoon nods. “Enough about those songs. Can we just…?” He gently pushes the sandwich from between them and leans forward to kiss her.

“After this sandwich,” she mumbles between kisses.


End file.
